So You Want to Find an Agent?

Therese here. I’m so happy to introduce you to our new semi-regular contributor, my own agent, Elisabeth Weed. Elisabeth–who is also agent to WU’s Jael McHenry and Allison Winn Scotch–is a wonderfully savvy and well-connected agent, who is constantly evolving Weed Literary. I know that the insights she’ll post here will be valuable to those seeking a traditional publishing path. Please give her a big welcome, and enjoy her first post!

I am thrilled to join Writer Unboxed, a blog I have greatly admired since I first started working with the lovely and talented Therese Walsh. I thought I’d tackle the agent’s perspective, over the next several posts, starting with how to best find one. In the coming month’s I’ll talk about everything from choosing the best agent to maintaining a healthy relationship with your agent to parting ways with your agent (yes, it happens and no, it doesn’t have to be unpleasant for either of you).

A lot has been written on finding an agent and I am not sure I can offer anything fresh or new, but I do think that some of the advice that worked well for my authors is worth repeating. In fact I just signed an author that I am over the moon excited about. But guess what? She queried me, didn’t hear from me and after she got an offer, followed up with me again. Guess where her mail was hiding? SPAM. But that’s for my next post on getting an offer and making a decision.

So, you’ve written a book and now you want to find an agent to represent it. Where do you go from here?

Do your homework: I find myself saying this a lot at conferences, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. Because there’s so much online these days, authors really have all the information they need for finding the best fit for their work. Join Publishers Marketplace. It’s $20 a month, and I will probably get in trouble for saying this, but I’ve known authors who have shared a subscription and split costs. You can also unsubscribe whenever you like. PM lists recently made deals by genre and includes the title, publisher and agent. Get a sense of who is representing what you are writing. Then go to that agent’s website if they have one and make sure they are accepting submissions and how. I’d add that because so much is online these days, it’s really important that you double check at the source of an agent’s website if you can. (I am on some older sites that track agencies and all the info is outdated. People who only go to those sites and not my website often query me with YA or non fiction, which I am doing very little of and not currently looking for.)

Read: Read books you think are similar to yours so you can really educate yourself on the marketplace and be on track when you compare yourself to an author. I know some agents aren’t fans of comps, but I disagree wholeheartedly. I can’t tell you how many times an editor has asked me during a pitch who I would compare an author to. It’s part of the process, whether you like it or not.

Write a kick-ass cover letter: I’ve said it before, but think jacket copy. You want to bring your reader into the story in a provocative way in a few short paragraphs. This is your one and only way to sell the book they have yet to read, so make sure it does your book justice.Personalize: Or, as I sometimes say, kill em with kindness. Let that agent know that you really liked some of the work they’ve represented. It means the world to them as they’ve (hopefully!) worked tirelessly on that author’s behalf, and everyone loves a compliment. I do this often when I am selling to publishers. There are a handful of editors out there who I think so highly of that I will, with the author’s permission, give a 24-hour exclusive or tell them honestly that they are my first choice.

Get involved: This is different from blogging. Now, everyone has a blog and frankly you don’t need one. If you enjoy blogging, go for it, but only do it because it brings you satisfaction. What I mean about getting involved is go to readings if that’s what you like. Buy recently published books. Get on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N. Read the blogs, like this one, that have industry information and can in other ways help your career. I personally love it when my authors are involved.

Submit widely: I know there are other agents out there who will only consider things exclusively (asking you not to send to other agents while they consider your work), but I vehemently disagree with this policy. What they are doing is holding up the process for you. If you give each agent a month window exclusive, it could be a year and twelve agents later before you get a bite. Frankly, if you send to twelve agents and one of them likes it, you can email all the others and tell them you have an offer and then they will bloody well move a bit faster on it.

Hope that’s helpful. My next post will be on what to do when you find yourself with an offer or perhaps several….wouldn’t that be nice!

Anybody out there reading this have other advice on the topic? I’d love to know what has worked for you. Also, please feel free to ask any other agent-related questions in the comments below and I’ll be glad to consider for future posts.

Elisabeth Weed formed Weed Literary LLC in 2007. Prior to that, she worked as a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Kneerim and Williams and Trident Media Group. Weed Literary is hands-on in every stage of the publishing process, from developing proposals, to submitting books to the all of the major houses and negotiating contracts with those houses, to involvement in marketing and publicity of books, as well as in the selling of foreign and film rights.

Comments

Thanks for the excellent advice. I can attest to the daunting task of figuring out which agent might be the best one for you and your work. I really like that you stress that research is your friend in finding representation because a good fit, proper expertise and mutual goals along with love of the work are key to a good relationship.

Welcome to WU, Elisabeth! You will be a welcome addition to WU’s wealth of resources. Really good reminders here. Here’s an issue that arises on the WU group page fairly often, and potential fodder for your consideration for future posts. What if an agent, or two agents, both recommend revision, and the recommendations either conflict with each other, or with your gut. Any tips on handling such situations would be great. It’s hard to trust your gut when you’re a newbie. Thanks for being here!

While on the topic, can I put a friendly call-out to agents reading this? Good agent info is hard to find, even on the net. Most is vastly outdated and company bio’s are often vague. Help us find you. Help us understand what you are looking for and what you’re not. Writer’s don’t want to query a dead-end anymore than agents want a slush pile full of…well…slush.

Just a note — I’ve found that if you Google the agent’s name in quotes plus “interview,” and perhaps the year (or year prior) you’ll get decent information. Especially if you further filter it just for blogs. If an agent is acquiring, odds are good she’s given an interview to some blog that includes “what I’d really love now is” (whatever.)

That’s a really good point. I update my website all the time. I had a baby in May and changed it to reflect that I wasn’t considering submissions for 6 months. But clearly not everyone does. I guess you could always call the agency and ask? My assistant is up to date on what to tell authors. Is that not the case with other agencies?

Great post! I’m almost at this stage in my process. I’ve heard that I should begin by only querying two to five agents at first to see what happens because if you send to too many and they all reject your work, you won’t have anyone else to query if you decide to make changes based on feedback agents give you.

Good suggestion. I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, I would probably do that too, but no less than 5. I know how backlogged I get, so if I were submitting, I’d want to cast my net wide enough that I heard something back in a reasonable amount of time.

Not a silly question at all. They do! The traditional agent/editor lunch is where that’s typically done. Editors taking agents for lunch for the first time will tell agents what they have edited and what they are looking for. (And in turn agents will pitch accordingly) Some editors and publishing houses will also send their lists, along with a paragraph of books they wish they’d edited. And every so often, I’ll get an email for an editor who will just be checking in and happens to have a spot on a coming list for a certain book.

Wow, this is golden Elisabeth. I think anyone who wants to seek traditional publishing should start doing their homework early.

I work the stories and I stalk, oops, and follow agents. I have a list of over one hundred agents. There are about 15 that I follow from a distance, five within the fifteen that I sta- ah, observe closely. I jokingly stay stalk, because I feel like a stalker funky as I attempt to follow these agents. Whatever information they make public I try to absorb it when possible. If I’m able to, without freaking-the-hell-out-of-them, I make a connection so they can at least remember my name. People tend to remember Brian B. King (B.B. King) or Bknovelist (BK has a catchy sound, because of Burger King).

I know I’m not ready for an agent yet so I continue to learn, follow (stalk), and write. It’s one of the reasons why I am here at WU. It’s a great place to learn (a little) from agents and writers. Therese, as well as others, has a knack for luring agents and writers to the WU web.

I’ll add: volunteer at a writer’s conference. I think one of the best things I did was volunteer to run the pitch sessions. I decided to volunteer one year because my book wasn’t ready and I thought what better way to see agents in person. As it turned out, I ran the pitch sessions so well, I’ve been asked to do them again and again, and the agents remember me. Because of it, I’ve eaten lunch with agents (not in my genre, though), and gotten referrals. I also get asked what my book is about at least once, and it’s great practice even if the agent doesn’t sell that genre.

Something that has helped me in the past year is Twitter. I learn a lot about agents & their assistants by the things they tweet, & it helps me to know whether or not that person would be a good match for me & my work. I’ve also received faster, more personal responses because of this, & I’m privy to when they’re going to conferences & when their workloads are too heavy.

What a great addition to Writer Unboxed — so happy to see you here! As a writer who just subscribed to Publisher’s Marketplace, I’m happy to see I’ve started down a good path, and I very much appreciate your other tips, too!

How do you feel about synopses? I teach a class and sell an ebook re: queries and proposal packages, and I’ve always felt that the query shows you understand the market (I love that you mentioned knowing your competition!) and how to sell, the synopsis shows you understand story structure, and the partial/full shows you can write. It’s a slightly different approach in each, even though obviously they’re all related!

I’m so glad you wrote this post. I feel like this business aspect, even if you wind up self-publishing, is crucial to understand. Welcome to WU! :)

I tend not to read synopses, but I think it runs the gamut, agent to agent. Once I’ve read the query, which gives me the big picture sense, I want to see if I respond to the writing, line by line and then, I keep going to see about structure.

Thanks for the honest advice. I am in the editing/hair pulling/religious losing stage of my first novel. Any words of wisdom on how to write that killer inquiry letter? Should you use your opening paragraph of you book if it is a “I got to read more” kind of a hook?

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice and insight. I have found that anytime I discover that a new author is represented by you their book is likely to be something I enjoy. Sarah Jio, Sere Prince Halverson and now Julie Kibler, are some authors whose works I have enjoyed recently. I was interested to see that you aren’t interested in a synopsis, since I plan to query you in a few months once my novel “The Grace of Kimchi” has gone through my critique group a second time.

I’ve been wondering whether or not a subscription to Publishers Marketplace was worth it and now I have a creative answer. Every time I see a post by you, I learn something new and helpful.

I’m glad to see you’re taking submissions again but didn’t realize you stopped due to the birth of a new baby. Congratulations on your new addition. One of life’s greatest pleasures for me was holding my babies close and resting my lips on the top of their soft little heads while I inhaled their newborn warmth.

Hi. This might be a dumb question but it’s one I would like answered and figured I would take it to agent. Say you are an agent in the US and someone from a different country queries you and you love their stuff – do you take them on as a client or refer them to an agent in their own country? (ie Canada). I feel that most agent blogs are American and I’m never sure if it’s okay to query an American agent when you’re not American. All advice seems tailored for American writers so I’m not sure how it applies to writers from say Canada or England who want to reach a bigger audience by submitting to the big US publishers. How does this work? thanks for any advice.

I hope it’s okay that I respond to you. Perhaps Elizabeth will too with an official answer. I have been following a Canadian author on her road to publishing success and she met an American agent at a writer’s conference in Canada. The agent first sold her book to a Canadian publisher and has gone on to sell it to an American publisher as well as publishers in some other countries. It seems as though it is perfectly fine to have an American agent representing you for all countries. Something I found interesting though is that she is working with different editors for the Canadian publisher and the American publisher and if it sells in England, she’ll work with an English editor. I know British English is very different than American English but I didn’t realize Canadian English was so different.

Hi JT, not a dumb question at all. Canadian authors can absolutely have American agents. I get submissions from Canada all the time–both authors already published in Canada and debuts. And yes, Cerrissa is correct regarding rights. Although a lot of American publishers want North American AND Canadian rights. In fact, some US publishers won’t even offer on a book for NA if they can’t have the Canadian…. so if you are Canadian, you need to specifically carve those rights out. Hope that helps.

Thanks for reinforcing the importance of research. I really appreciate agents who give examples of what they mean by ‘great writing.’ Of course, I expect agents to want this but am sometimes flummoxed when that is all they have to say on the subject. I look forward to reading your future posts.

Hi Elisabeth – thanks for your helpful tips. I have a question that may be unpopular :(. I recently went to a writers festival where a publisher claimed that there are some agents with questionable reputations that, in the publisher’s eyes, can hinder rather than aid a writer’s chances for publication. Do you agree? How do we know if an agent is reputable or not? Thank you!

This is one of the most detailed (and honest, I feel) articles on how to find an agent I’ve ever read…thank you, Elisabeth! During my research on agents, I’ve come across a lot of references linking to Publisher’s Marketplace. I had thought that Query Tracker was the place to do comprehensive agent searches, but it sounds like I might be better of putting money into PM.